Do you give enough thought to the influence of peer pressure and inborn human altruism? If not, allow us to explain the Airbnb referral programme and how Evolve can help you reproduce it.

Would you believe someone if they said that travelling and staying in a stranger’s home is fun? Maybe you wouldn’t, but in 2008, a little Californian start-up called Airbnb did and developed a platform for doing just that. The idea was novel, but it was also perilous because nobody had ever heard of it before, and some people were concerned that it might be a cover for human trafficking or something else else. Because of this, Airbnb has come to rely significantly on positive feedback and word-of-mouth advertising to market its services. It’s not surprising that the first Airbnb referral scheme appeared soon after.

Airbnb’s refer-a-friend program’s development

It was a blessing in disguise when Airbnb’s programme started in its initial form in 2011. Until the results were in, the initiative was considered to be only marginally successful and was swiftly forgotten as just another example of a failed referral effort. According to the data, the referral programme attracted a lot of new users, which resulted in millions of dollars in revenue. It turned out that the program’s largest issue was its underwhelming promotion, as the majority of users and even some Airbnb workers were unaware of it.

The second iteration of the referral programme was developed as the solution, and it was effectively promoted this time to serve as the best example of how to improve brand recognition and sales significantly. The Referral Program 2.0 for Airbnb was therefore created.

Why is the Airbnb referral scheme effective?

The following innovations helped make Airbnb’s referral programme well-known worldwide:

The sharing process is made easier by offering a shareable link and the option to import contacts from Gmail (and other platforms) in order to send pals personalised email invitations. It’s important to note that Airbnb ran the possibility of getting charged with violating people’s privacy, but fortunately the convenience factor won out and the site got away with it.

How does the referral programme for Airbnb work?

The fundamental tenets of the referral programme are simple to understand: after your friends complete a first-time stay or activity, you receive Travel Credits that they can use to travel (a.k.a Qualifying Reservation). Various offers have different numbers of Travel Credits.

Of course, restrictions exist to stop fraud and misuse of the program’s guidelines:

The maximum number of Total Credits is limited.
The stay must be completed by the referred friend (check-out) in order for it to be considered successful; also, the referrer cannot be the host.
Travel Credits cannot be accumulated on multiple accounts.
Travel Credits are only used for advertising and have no cash value. They also cannot be traded for cash.
Sharing referral links on commercial websites is prohibited.
Date that a promo code expires (1 year).
One referral link may only be used once by the referred buddy.
If a user’s behaviour appears to be fraudulent, Airbnb has the ability to suspend the user’s account without prior notification or justification.

The compensation for the referee will be determined in the following phase and will be immediately triggered after code redemption, which in the case of your website or app will be equivalent to enrolling through code. This referral code may really refer to a discount coupon or gift card that is being maintained by Evolve engine, and it may direct users to a landing page that offers such discounts or cards.

You have two options from Evolve: you can use Travel Credits similarly to gift cards or loyalty cards. These credits will both be usable for next reservations. You may alternatively think of them as $20 discounts if that fits you better.

You will then see a new, more thorough view of your campaign where you can simply monitor its performance and make any necessary edits. Additionally, you can use Evolve to distribute referral codes by automated or human messages, including emails, SMS, push notifications, webhooks, and a variety of other formats.

As you’ve just seen, the flexible rules engine of Evolve and the customizable promotion schemes make it incredibly simple to reproduce the Airbnb referral programme.